Method and system for identification of distributed broadcast content

ABSTRACT

A method and system of performing high-throughput identifications of broadcast content is provided. A device can send a content identification query, which includes a sample of content being broadcast, to a server to request an identity of the content. The server will perform a computational identification of the content, return the result to the device, and store the result. For all subsequently received content identification queries requesting an identity of content being broadcast from the same source and in a time during which the content is still being broadcast from the source, the server will send the stored content identification in response to the subsequent queries. If a subsequent content identification query does not request the identity of content being broadcast from the same source or is not received during the time that the content is still being broadcast, the server will perform a computational identification of a content sample.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present patent application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e)to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/848,941, filed onOct. 3, 2006, the entirety of which is herein incorporated by reference.The present patent application also claims priority to U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/866,814, filed on Oct. 3, 2007, the entirety ofwhich is herein incorporated by reference. The present patentapplication also claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/976,050, filed on Dec. 22, 2010, the entirety of which is hereinincorporated by reference.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to identifying content withinbroadcasts, and more particularly, to identifying information aboutsegments or excerpts of content within a data stream.

BACKGROUND

As industries move toward multimedia rich working environments, usage ofall forms of audio and visual content representations (radio broadcasttransmissions, streaming video, audio canvas, visual summarization,etc.) becomes more frequent. Whether a user, content provider, or both,everybody searches for ways to optimally utilize such content. Forexample, one method that has much potential for creative uses is contentidentification. Enabling a user to identify content that the user islistening to or watching offers a content provider new possibilities forsuccess.

Content identification may be used in a service provided for a consumerdevice (e.g., a cell phone), which includes a broadcast receiver, tosupply broadcast program metadata to a user. For example, title, artist,and album information can be provided to the user on the device forbroadcast programs as the programs are being played on the device.Existing systems to provide content information of a broadcast signal toa user may only provide limited metadata, as with a radio data signal(RDS). In addition, existing systems may not be monitoring everybroadcast station in every locale, and a desired radio station mappingmay not always be available.

Still further, other existing systems may require the consumer device tosample/record a broadcast program and to send the sample of thebroadcast program to a recognition server for direct identification. Acomputational cost to perform a recognition on one media sample may besmall, however, when considering that potentially many millions ofconsumer devices may be active at the same time, and if each were toquery the server once per minute, the recognition server would have tobe able to perform millions of recognitions every minute, and then thecomputational cost becomes significant. Such a system may only be ableto allow a time budget of a few microseconds or less per recognitionrequest, which is a few orders of magnitude smaller than typicalprocessing times for media content identification. Furthermore, sincebroadcast media is often presented as a continuous stream withoutsegmentation markers, in order to provide matching program metadata thatis timely and synchronized with current program, a brute-force sampleand query method could require fine granularity sampling intervals, thusincreasing required query load even more.

In the field of broadcast monitoring and subsequent contentidentification, it is desirable to identify as much audio content aspossible, within every locale, while minimizing effort expended. Thepresent application provides techniques for doing so.

SUMMARY

Within embodiments disclosed herein, a method of identifying contentwithin a data stream is provided. The method includes receiving acontent identification query from a client device that requests anidentity of content that was broadcast from a broadcast source. Ifcontent from the broadcast source has previously been identified and ifthe content identification query has been received at a time duringwhich the content is still being broadcast from the source, the methodincludes sending the previous identification of the content to theclient device. However, if not, the method includes (i) performing acontent identification using a sample of the content broadcast from thebroadcast source, and (ii) storing the content identification.

In another embodiment, the method includes receiving a contentidentification query from a client device that requests an identity ofcontent being broadcast from a broadcast source and includinginformation pertaining to the broadcast source of the content. Themethod also includes accessing a cache including a listing of contentidentifications that were each generated using a content sample, andeach listing includes information pertaining to identity of contentbroadcast from a plurality of broadcast sources and each item in thelisting including (i) an identity of given content, (ii) an identity ofa given broadcast source that broadcast the given content, and (iii) anindication of when the content identification is valid. The method alsoincludes matching the broadcast source of the content to a broadcastsource of one of the content samples from which any of the contentidentifications were generated, and if the content identification querywas received during a time in which the content identification in thelisting pertaining to the one of the content samples is still valid,sending the content identification in the listing pertaining to the oneof the content samples to the client device in response to the contentidentification query.

In still another embodiment, the method includes receiving a firstcontent identification query from a first client device that includes arecording of a sample of content being broadcast from a first source,making a content identification using the sample of the content,determining a time during which the content will be or is beingbroadcast from the first source, and storing the content identification,the time, and information pertaining to the first source of the contentin a cache. The method also includes receiving a second contentidentification query from a second client device that requests anidentity of content being broadcast from a second source and includinginformation pertaining to the second source of the content. The methodfurther includes if the first source and the second source are the sameand if the time has not expired, (i) sending the content identificationmade in response to the first content identification query to the secondclient device in response to the second content identification query,and if not, (ii) making a second content identification using a sampleof the content being broadcast from the second source and storing thesecond content identification in the cache.

These as well as other features, advantages and alternatives will becomeapparent to those of ordinary skill in the art by reading the followingdetailed description, with appropriate reference to the accompanyingdrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

FIG. 1 illustrates one example of a system for identifying contentwithin an audio stream.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart depicting functional blocks of an example methodof identifying content based on location of a user, broadcastinformation and/or stored content identifications.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example client consumer devicein communication with a sample analyzer to receive informationidentifying broadcast content.

FIG. 4 illustrates a conceptual example of multiple contentidentification queries occurring serially in time during a song.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example display of broadcast metadata on a mobilephone.

FIG. 6 illustrates a conceptual block diagram of an example coveragearea map for two radio stations.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Within exemplary embodiments described below, a method for identifyingcontent within data streams is provided. The method may be applied toany type of data content identification. In the following examples, thedata is an audio data stream. The audio data stream may be a real-timedata stream or an audio recording, for example.

Exemplary embodiments describe methods for identifying content byidentifying a source (e.g., channel, stream, or station) of the contenttransmission, and a location of a device requesting the contentidentification. For example, it may be desirable to detect from afree-field audio sample of a radio broadcast which radio station a useris listening to, as well as to what song the user is listening.Exemplary embodiments described below illustrate a method and apparatusfor identifying a broadcast source of desired content, and foridentifying content broadcast from the source. In one embodiment, a usercan utilize an audio sampling device including a microphone and optionaldata transmission means to identify content from a broadcast source. Theuser may hear an audio program being broadcast from some broadcastmeans, such as radio or television, and can record a sample of the audiousing the audio sampling device. The sample, broadcast sourceinformation, and optionally a location of the audio sampling device arethen conveyed to an analyzing means to identify the content. Contentinformation may then be reported back to the user.

The identity and information within a query (broadcast sourceinformation and optionally location information) are then stored. Ifsecond user then subsequently sends a content identification query forthe same broadcast source and the query is received within a given timeframe, then the stored content identity can be returned as a result tothe second user. The query would need to be received during a time inwhich the same song is being broadcast on by the same broadcast source,so that the second user would effectively be asking to identify the samesong that was previously identified in response to the first query. Inthis manner, for all queries received after a first query, during abroadcast of the song for which the query pertains, and pertaining tothe same broadcast source, the response to the first query (which isstored) can be returned to all subsequent queries. As a result, only onecomputational content identification is needed to be performed, becausethe result can be stored for later retrieval, if subsequent contentqueries satisfy the requirements (e.g., if subsequent content queriesare considered to be for the same song).

Referring now to the figures, FIG. 1 illustrates one example of a systemfor identifying content within other data content, such as identifying asong within a radio broadcast. The system includes radio stations, suchas radio station 102, which may be a radio or television contentprovider, for example, that broadcasts audio streams and otherinformation to a receiver 104. The receiver 104 receives the broadcastradio signal using an antenna 106 and converts the signal into sound.The receiver 104 may be a component within any number of consumerdevices, such as a portable computer or cell phone. The receiver 104 mayalso include a conventional AM/FM tuner and other amplifiers as well toenable tuning to a desired radio broadcast channel.

The receiver 104 can record portions of the broadcast signal (e.g.,audio sample) for identification. The receiver 104 can send over a wiredor wireless link a recorded broadcast to a sample analyzer 108 that willidentify information pertaining to the audio sample, such as trackidentities (e.g., song title, artist, or other broadcast programinformation). The sample analyzer 108 includes an audio search engine110 and may access a database 112 containing audio sample and broadcastinformation, for example, to compare the received audio sample withstored information so as to identify tracks within the received audiostream. Once tracks within the audio stream have been identified, thetrack identities or other information may be reported back to thereceiver 104.

Alternatively, the receiver 104 may receive a broadcast from the radiostation 102, and perform some initial processing on a sample of thebroadcast so as to create a fingerprint of the broadcast sample. Thereceiver 104 could then send the fingerprint information to the sampleanalyzer 108, which will identify information pertaining to the samplebased on the fingerprint alone. In this manner, more computation oridentification processing can be performed at the receiver 104, ratherthan at the sample analyzer 108.

The database 112 may include many recordings and each recording has aunique identifier (e.g., sound_ID). The database 112 itself does notnecessarily need to store the audio files for each recording, since thesound_IDs can be used to retrieve audio files from elsewhere. A sounddatabase index may be very large, containing indices for millions oreven billions of files, for example. New recordings can be addedincrementally to the database index.

The system of FIG. 1 allows songs to be identified based on storedinformation. While FIG. 1 illustrates a system that has a givenconfiguration, the components within the system may be arranged in othermanners. For example, the audio search engine 110 may be separate fromthe sample analyzer 108, or audio sample processing can occur at thereceiver 104 or at the sample analyzer 108. Thus, it should beunderstood that the configurations described herein are merely exemplaryin nature, and many alternative configurations might also be used.

The system in FIG. 1, and in particular the sample analyzer 108,identifies content within an audio stream using samples of the audiowithin the audio stream. Various audio sample identification techniquesare known in the art for performing computational contentidentifications of audio samples and features of audio samples using adatabase of audio tracks. The following patents and publicationsdescribe possible examples for audio recognition techniques, and each isentirely incorporated herein by reference, as if fully set forth in thisdescription.

-   -   Kenyon et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,843,562, entitled “Broadcast        Information Classification System and Method”    -   Kenyon, U.S. Pat. No. 5,210,820, entitled “Signal Recognition        System and Method”    -   Haitsma et al, International Publication Number WO 02/065782 A1,        entitled “Generating and Matching Hashes of Multimedia Content”    -   Wang and Smith, International Publication Number WO 02/11123 A2,        entitled “System and Methods for Recognizing Sound and Music        Signals in High Noise and Distortion”    -   Wang and Culbert, International Publication Number WO 03/091990        A1, entitled “Robust and Invariant Audio Pattern Matching”    -   Wang, Avery, International Publication Number W05/079499,        entitled “Method and Apparatus for identification of broadcast        source”

Briefly, identifying features of an audio recording begins by receivingthe recording and sampling the recording at a plurality of samplingpoints to produce a plurality of signal values. A statistical moment ofthe signal can be calculated using any known formulas, such as thatnoted in U.S. Pat. No. 5,210,820, for example. The calculatedstatistical moment is then compared with a plurality of stored signalidentifications and the recording is recognized as similar to one of thestored signal identifications. The calculated statistical moment can beused to create a feature vector that is quantized, and a weighted sum ofthe quantized feature vector is used to access a memory that stores thesignal identifications.

In another example, generally, audio content can be identified byidentifying or computing characteristics or fingerprints of an audiosample and comparing the fingerprints to previously identifiedfingerprints. The particular locations within the sample at whichfingerprints are computed depend on reproducible points in the sample.Such reproducibly computable locations are referred to as “landmarks.”The location within the sample of the landmarks can be determined by thesample itself, i.e., is dependent upon sample qualities and isreproducible. That is, the same landmarks are computed for the samesignal each time the process is repeated. A landmarking scheme may markabout 5-10 landmarks per second of sound recording; of course,landmarking density depends on the amount of activity within the soundrecording. One landmarking technique, known as Power Norm, is tocalculate the instantaneous power at many time points in the recordingand to select local maxima. One way of doing this is to calculate theenvelope by rectifying and filtering the waveform directly. Another wayis to calculate the Hilbert transform (quadrature) of the signal and usethe sum of the magnitudes squared of the Hilbert transform and theoriginal signal. Other methods for calculating landmarks may also beused.

Once the landmarks have been computed, a fingerprint is computed at ornear each landmark time point in the recording. The nearness of afeature to a landmark is defined by the fingerprinting method used. Insome cases, a feature is considered near a landmark if it clearlycorresponds to the landmark and not to a previous or subsequentlandmark. In other cases, features correspond to multiple adjacentlandmarks. The fingerprint is generally a value or set of values thatsummarizes a set of features in the recording at or near the time point.In one embodiment, each fingerprint is a single numerical value that isa hashed function of multiple features. Other examples of fingerprintsinclude spectral slice fingerprints, multi-slice fingerprints, LPCcoefficients, cepstral coefficients, and frequency components ofspectrogram peaks.

Fingerprints can be computed by any type of digital signal processing orfrequency analysis of the signal. In one example, to generate spectralslice fingerprints, a frequency analysis is performed in theneighborhood of each landmark timepoint to extract the top severalspectral peaks. A fingerprint value may then be the single frequencyvalue of the strongest spectral peak. For more information oncalculating characteristics or fingerprints of audio samples, the readeris referred to U.S. Patent Application Publication US 2002/0083060, toWang and Smith, entitled “System and Methods for Recognizing Sound andMusic Signals in High Noise and Distortion,” the entire disclosure ofwhich is herein incorporated by reference as if fully set forth in thisdescription.

Thus, the sample analyzer 108 will receive a recording and computefingerprints of the recording. The sample analyzer 108 may compute thefingerprints by contacting additional recognition engines. To identifythe recording, the sample analyzer 108 can then access the database 112to match the fingerprints of the recording with fingerprints of knownaudio tracks by generating correspondences between equivalentfingerprints and files in the database 112 to locate a file that has thelargest number of linearly related correspondences, or whose relativelocations of characteristic fingerprints most closely match the relativelocations of the same fingerprints of the recording. That is, linearcorrespondences between the landmark pairs are identified, and sets arescored according to the number of pairs that are linearly related. Alinear correspondence occurs when a statistically significant number ofcorresponding sample locations and file locations can be described withsubstantially the same linear equation, within an allowed tolerance. Thefile of the set with the highest statistically significant score, i.e.,with the largest number of linearly related correspondences, is thewinning file, and is deemed the matching media file.

As yet another example of a technique to identify content within theaudio stream, an audio sample can be analyzed to identify its contentusing a localized matching technique. For example, generally, arelationship between two audio samples can be characterized by firstmatching certain fingerprint objects derived from the respectivesamples. A set of fingerprint objects, each occurring at a particularlocation, is generated for each audio sample. Each location isdetermined depending upon the content of a respective audio sample andeach fingerprint object characterizes one or more local features at ornear the respective particular location. A relative value is nextdetermined for each pair of matched fingerprint objects. A histogram ofthe relative values is then generated. If a statistically significantpeak is found, the two audio samples can be characterized assubstantially matching. Additionally, a time stretch ratio, whichindicates how much an audio sample has been sped up or slowed down ascompared to the original audio track can be determined. For a moredetailed explanation of this method, the reader is referred to publishedPCT patent application WO 03/091990, to Wang and Culbert, entitledRobust and Invariant Audio Pattern Matching, the entire disclosure ofwhich is herein incorporated by reference as if fully set forth in thisdescription.

In addition, systems and methods described within the publications abovemay return more than just the identity of an audio sample. For example,Wang and Smith may return, in addition to the metadata associated withan identified audio track, the relative time offset (RTO) of an audiosample from the beginning of the identified audio track. To determine arelative time offset of the audio recording, the fingerprints of theaudio sample can be compared with fingerprints of the original files towhich they match. Each fingerprint occurs at a given time, so aftermatching fingerprints to identify the audio sample, a difference in timebetween a first fingerprint (of the matching fingerprint in the audiosample) and a first fingerprint of the stored original file will be atime offset of the audio sample, e.g., amount of time into a song. Thus,a relative time offset (e.g., 67 seconds into a song) at which thesample was taken can be determined.

Thus, a user may send from a client device a content identificationquery to a sample analyzer, which may use any of the techniquesdescribed herein to identify the content. Within exemplary embodimentsdescribed below, the user's client device may only need to sendinformation relating to a source of the content and a location of theclient device to the sample analyzer to identify content to which theuser is currently listening.

In an exemplary embodiment, the sample analyzer will perform a contentidentification for a song once, and then for future queries, which arereceived within a valid time window by other client devices listening tothe same broadcast that are located in a geographic area for which thebroadcast covers, the sample analyzer can return the previous contentidentification that was performed. Within a given geographic area, thereis a limited number of radio broadcast stations, and if a geographiclocation of a user is known, then using the known location, broadcastinformation and a time of a query, the sample analyzer can identify arecording without having to perform computationally intensiveidentifications (as described above), but by referring to previousidentifications made with for devices in the same locality.

As an example, if two users are trying to identify the same radiostation content at about the same time, after the sample analyzerperforms an identification of a first user's recording (using a methoddescribed above), then within an allowable time window (e.g., timeduration of the previously identified song), the sample analyzer canreturn the same identification to a second user. During a time durationof the song, if another user within the same locality and listening tothe same broadcast sends in a request, the sample analyzer will not haveto do a computationally intensive identification, but rather, the sampleanalyzer can rely on the previous stored recognition. In this manner,there could be many queries to identify a song being broadcast on aradio station, and the sample analyzer may only have to perform onecomputationally intensive identification, store the identification andmark the identification as being valid for a given time frame.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart depicting functional blocks of an example methodof identifying content based on location of a user, broadcastinformation and/or stored content identifications. Initially, a consumerappliance including a broadcast receiver can be used to listen to abroadcast station. A user can send a content identification query fromthe consumer appliance to a request server, providing at least arepresentation of a broadcast station to which the user is listening, asshown at block 202. The consumer appliance may also send locationinformation to the request server to indicate a geographic location ofthe consumer appliance, as shown at block 204. If the broadcast stationinformation is not unique, for example, if the broadcast stationinformation is just a tuning frequency, the location information acts todisambiguate an exact broadcast station. Many radio stations broadcastin one area, and each has a distinct broadcast frequency, however,broadcast frequencies are reused throughout multiple areas. Thus, therequest server uses either the broadcast frequency alone, or thebroadcast frequency and the geographic location information to identifya unique broadcast source, as shown at block 206.

Next, the request server determines if there is currently cachedmetadata available for the selected broadcast station, as shown at block208. Currently cached valid metadata will be available if a broadcastprogram has already been identified for a previous query on the selectedbroadcast station within a predetermined interval of time. If there iscurrently cached metadata available for the broadcast station, then therequest server will return an associated cached metadata result to theconsumer appliance, as shown at block 210. If no currently cachedmetadata is available, then the request server will request the consumerappliance to send a media sample representation to the request server,as shown at block 212. The request server then routes the media sampleto a recognition server for an identification, and sends an associatedmetadata result back to the consumer appliance, as shown at blocks 214and 216. The request server then caches (stores) the result as acurrently cached metadata for the selected broadcast station for apredetermined length of time, during which the currently cached metadatais valid, as shown at block 218. Caching the current metadata makes itpossible to serve requests to many more consumer appliances than wouldotherwise be possible if each request included a sample recording thathad to be identified individually through a recognition server. Usingthe method in FIG. 2, each broadcast program on each broadcast stationwould only need to be identified once independent of how many consumerdevices make requests because the initial identification is shared andused for all subsequent requests pertaining to the same broadcastprogram (e.g., for all subsequent requests received during the validtime period).

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example client consumer device302 in communication with a sample analyzer 304 to receive informationidentifying broadcast content. The client consumer device 302 may be apersonal computer, stereo receiver, set-top box, mobile phone, MP3player, and may be able to communicate with the sample analyzer 304 viaa wired or wireless data connection. The wired data connection couldoperate over Ethernet, DSL, ISDN, or conventional POTS telephone modemnetwork. The wireless data connection may operate according to a shortrange wireless protocol, such as the Bluetooth® protocol, WiFi or WiMax,or according to a long range wireless protocol, such as CDMA, GSM, orother wireless networks.

The client consumer device 302 includes a broadcast receiver 306, abroadcast station selector 308, a media sampler 310, a query generator312, a global positioning system (GPS) location device 314, a timestampclock 316 and a display 318.

The broadcast receiver 306 may be any type of general FM/AMtransmitter/receiver (or XM satellite radio receiver) to receiverbroadcasts from a radio station. The broadcast receiver 306 may evenreceive an Internet streaming digital broadcast. The broadcast stationselector 308 is coupled to the broadcast receiver 306 and is able totune to a specific broadcast frequency (so as to only pass one radiofrequency) to an amplifier and loudspeaker (not shown) to be played fora user. The broadcast station selector 308 may provide a text stringrepresenting a broadcast channel or an Internet address, such as a URL,that represents the broadcast channel. Alternatively, the broadcaststation selector 308 may specify a number indicating a tuning frequency.The tuning frequency may be used by the broadcast receiver 306 to set ananalog, digital, or software tuner, or to access an Internet networkaddress to access a specific broadcast program.

The media sampler 310 is coupled to the broadcast receiver in order torecord a portion of a broadcast. A segment of an audio program a fewseconds long may be sampled digitally into a file as a numeric array bythe media sampler 310. In an optional step of processing, the mediasample may be further processed by compression. Alternatively, the rawmedia sample may be processed through a feature extractor to pull outrelevant features for content identification. One feature extractorknown in the art is taught by Wang and Smith, U.S. Pat. No. 6,990,453,which is entirely incorporated by reference, in which a list ofspectrogram peaks in time and frequency is extracted from an audiosample. Another suitable feature extraction method known in the art isdisclosed by Haitsma, et al, in U.S. Patent Application PublicationNumber 2002/0178410, which entirely incorporated herein by reference.Feature extraction and compression are not required, but can be used bythe media sampler 310 to reduce an amount of data that is transmitted tothe sample analyzer 304, thus saving time and bandwidth costs.

The query generator 312 may also send a geographic location of theclient consumer device 302 along with the query, and may receive thegeographic location from the GPS device 314. The mechanism by which theGPS device 314 determines a position of the client consumer device 302can be device-based and/or network based. In a device-based system, theGPS device 314 is a GPS receiver for receiving from a GPS satellitesystem an indication of the client consumer device's current position.In a network-based system, the GPS device 314 may send a positiondetermination request into a wireless network, and the network mayrespond to the GPS device 314 by providing the GPS device 314 with anindication of the GPS device's position. (In this regard, the networkmay determine the GPS device's position by querying the GPS deviceaccording to the specification “Position Determination Service Standardfor Dual Mode Spread Spectrum Systems,” TIA/EIA/IS-801, published inOctober 1999 and fully incorporated herein by reference, which defines aset of signaling messages between a device and network components toprovide a position determination service so as to determine a locationof the device.

Alternatively, in a network-based system, the GPS device 314 may operatevia a reverse-lookup protocol using an IP address of the client consumerdevice 302 to obtain an approximate location. The IP address of theclient consumer device 302 may be assigned by a network provider, and ageographic location of the IP address can be included withinregistration information of the owner of the IP address. Either the IPaddress of the client consumer device 302 or an IP address of a gatewayin the path to the server may be used. In this case, the GPS device 314can provide sufficient information to indicate an approximate positionby sending its IP address, and the derivation of the position may beperformed at the client consumer device 302 or at the sample analyzer304. The IP address will include information from which a location canbe ascertained, or may even include a reference number indicative of aphysical location.

The GPS device 314 is optional and is only used if the broadcast stationselector 306 does not uniquely specify a broadcast station. For example,if the broadcast station selector 306 only specifies a tuning frequency,rather than a tuning frequency and additional information pertaining toa broadcast station (e.g., such as a broadcast station name). Locationinformation disambiguates the broadcast station since only one stationin a geographical vicinity may use the same frequency. For purposes ofthe present application, accuracy of the GPS device 314 does not need tobe extremely high. Other means for localization may be employed, workingin conjunction with the sample analyzer 304, such as triangulationthrough mobile phone data network transmission towers. For fixedlocation consumer appliances such as a set-top box, the locationinformation may be specified by a zip code or a residential addressstored in a data string, for example.

A user may then user the query generator 312 to send a contentidentification query to the sample analyzer 304 to receive informationpertaining to the identity of the content. The query generator 312 mayalso send a timestamp from the timestamp clock 316 along with the query.The sample analyzer 304 will return metadata to the client consumerdevice 302 for display on the metadata display 318, which may be anytypical display device.

The sample analyzer 304 includes a request server 320, a recognitionserver 322, a metadata cache temporary storage 324 and a timestamp clock326. The request server 320 receives content identification queries fromthe client consumer device 302 and returns metadata pertaining to anidentification of the content. The recognition server 322 operates toperform a computational identification of an audio sample, using any ofthe methods described herein, such as those described within Kenyon,U.S. Pat. No. 5,210,820. The recognition server 322 will also identify areal-time offset of the audio sample from the original recording, asdescribed within U.S. Patent Application Publication US 2002/0083060, toWang and Smith, to determine a time for which the identification of theaudio sample is valid and may be returned in response to future queries.

The request server 320 and or the recognition server 322 can estimateendpoints of the broadcast program by noting a timestamp of a beginningof the media sample and subtracting off the relative time offset (RTO)to obtain a segment start time, and then further adding a length of thebroadcast program (known after making the content identification) toobtain a segment end time. The segment start and end times can be usedto calculate a time interval of validity during which the cachedmetadata for the identified broadcast program is valid. For example, ifthe RTO indicates that the sample is 50 seconds into the song, and aftermaking the content identification, the identity and length of the songis known, and thus, the time remaining for which the song will be playedcan be calculated. If another user were to send in a contentidentification query for the same broadcast station during the remainingtime for which the song will be played, then no computationalidentification is necessary because it is known that the same song isstill being played and the identity of the song has already beendetermined and stored. In this instance, the request server 320 wouldsimply return the previously stored identity of the song.

When a computational identity is needed, the recognition server 322 mayreturn in addition to usual metadata identifying the song both arelative time offset from the beginning of the identified broadcastprogram corresponding to the start of the media sample and a length ofthe identified broadcast program. The recognition algorithms by Wang andSmith or by Haitsma, et al, (references cited above) can provide suchinformation. The recognition server 322 will then note the broadcaststation from which the sample was recorded, and then store all theinformation in the metadata cache 324, in a format as shown in Table 1below, for example.

TABLE 1 Broadcast Station Content Identification Time of Validity 104.5WMQD “name of song” Valid for the next 3:30 (San Francisco)

As shown in Table 1, the metadata cache 324 may correlate contentidentifications (e.g., names of song) with a broadcast station and atime of validity. The time of validity indicates how long the contentidentification for the specified broadcast station is valid. Forexample, the time of validity may be a remaining length of the song, sothat if another user sends in a query for this broadcast station duringthe time of validity (e.g., during broadcast of the same song), then thecontent identification of the song is still valid and is still correct.The time of validity may also be a time corresponding to a length of thesong, and the request server 320 will then note the timestamp in thecontent identification request to determine if the cached metadata isstill valid.

The request server 320 will receive the content identification queryfrom the client consumer device 302, identify a broadcast station fromthe query and determine if there is a currently cached metadata resultavailable and valid for the selected broadcast station within themetadata cache 324. As explained, currently cached metadata will beavailable if the recognition server 322 has already identified thebroadcast program on the selected broadcast station within apredetermined interval of time in the past.

If there is currently cached metadata available for the selectedbroadcast station, then the request server 320 returns the associatedcached metadata content identification result to the client consumerdevice 302. Furthermore, the time interval of validity, or at least anendpoint of a song may also be returned in the metadata to the clientconsumer device 302. The client consumer device 302 can then synchronizeupdate times indicating when to next query the request server 320 for anidentity of the next song (e.g., which will start after the end of theprevious time interval of validity), thus minimizing a delay in updatingprogram metadata between broadcast programs.

If no currently cached metadata is available and valid for the selectedbroadcast station, then request server 320 will request the clientconsumer device 302 to send a media sample representation to the requestserver 320 for identification. The request server 320 will route themedia sample to the recognition server 322, which performs acomputational identification and sends an associated metadata resultback to the request sever 320 that forwards the result back to theclient consumer device 302. The request server 320 will also cache theresult as the currently cached metadata for the selected broadcaststation, and store a predetermined length of time during which thecurrently cached metadata is valid. Caching of the current metadataenables the request server 320 to serve requests from many more consumerappliance clients than would otherwise be possible if each request hadto be computational identified individually through the recognitionserver 322.

FIG. 4 illustrates a conceptual example of multiple contentidentification queries occurring serially in time during a song. Asshown, a first song is being broadcast by a radio station at a starttime T_(m) and the song has an end time of T_(n) and thus a length of(T_(n)-T_(m)). A first content identification query is received at timeT₁, which is after the start of the first song, and so the contentidentification query is performed to identify the first song. Theidentity of the first song is then stored, and sent to a devicerequesting the first query. Once a second content identification isreceived at time T₂, which is before the end time T_(n), of the firstsong, then the stored information pertaining to a response that was sentto the first query is also sent in response to the second query. Nosecond or additional computational content identification is needed. Forall content identification queries received after the first query (e.g.,time T₁) and before the end of the song (e.g., time T_(n), the resultfrom the first computational content identification is returned.

As mentioned above, the client consumer device 302 can synchronizeupdate times indicating when to next query the request server 320 for anidentity of the next song (e.g., which will start after the end of theprevious time interval of validity or soon thereafter) to minimize adelay in updating program metadata between broadcast programs. In theexample shown in FIG. 4, the next song begins broadcasting at a timeT_(x), and thus during the time T_(n), to T_(x) no songs are broadcast.For example, during the time T_(n) to T_(x), a broadcast station may aircommercials or DJ talk. Thus, a client consumer device may be programmedto next query for content identification at least a few seconds afterthe end time of the previously identified song.

To that end, a client consumer device may programmatically (orautomatically) query the request server 320 to receive contentidentifications of every song being broadcast and received at the clientconsumer device so as to constantly received updated program metadata.In this manner, a user listening to a radio station will know theidentity of all songs being played, and will not have to manually createor send a content identification query to the request server 320.Metadata may also be automatically displayed on a client consumerdevice, while a broadcast receiver application is open and operating.For example, FIG. 5 illustrates an example display of broadcast metadataon a mobile device. The display may indicate radio station information(104.5 FM), a song title, an artist name, and a time remaining for thesong. Other information may also be displayed as well. The mobile devicemay continually receive new metadata with new information pertaining toa current song being played, and may update the display accordingly. Themetadata update may be sent in response to a query by the clientconsumer device 302, or alternatively may be pushed proactively by thesample analyzer 304 to the client consumer device 302, as long as theclient consumer device 302 continues to indicate that it is still tunedto the same broadcast station. In this manner, the data can be sentwithout a request to continue updating the metadata information.

The client consumer device 302 sends broadcast station information tothe sample analyzer 304 and the sample analyzer 304 usually will be ableto discern to which broadcast station the client consumer device 302 islistening based on the information. The sample analyzer may also attemptto determine a broadcast source by using external monitoring systems.For example, samples from broadcast channels may be monitored and eachbroadcast sample may be time stamped in terms of a “real-time” offsetfrom a common time base, and an estimated time offset of the broadcastsample within the “original” recording is determined (using thetechnique of Wang and Smith described in U.S. Patent ApplicationPublication US 2002/0083060, the entire disclosure of which is hereinincorporated by reference). Then user sample characteristics received bythe sample analyzer 304 can be compared with characteristics frombroadcast samples that were taken at or near the time the user samplewas recorded to identify a match. If the real-time offsets are within acertain tolerance, e.g., one second, then the user audio sample isconsidered to be originating from the same source as the broadcastsample, since the probability that a random performance of the sameaudio content (such as a hit song) is synchronized to less than onesecond in time is low. Additional factors may also be considered whenattempting to find a match to a broadcast source the audio sample. Forexample, to further verify that the user is actually listening to agiven broadcast channel, and that it is not just a coincidence (such asa user taking a recording from a CD player), user samples can be takenover a longer period of time, e.g., longer than a typical audio program,such as over a transition between audio programs on the same channel toverify continuity of identity over a program transition as an indicatorthat the correct broadcast channel is being tracked.

However, if the broadcast selection selector 308 of the client consumerdevice 302 does not uniquely describe a single broadcast station, thenlocation information from the GPS device 314 is also sent along with thequery (either within the query message or as a separate message) to therequest server 320. The request server 320 may then access the metadatacache 324 and identify a broadcast station that broadcasts within anarea of the location of the client consumer device 302. For example, therequest server 320 can look to a table, such as Table 1, to verify thatstation “104.5” broadcasts to San Francisco, which is where the clientconsumer device 302 may be located, and return the metadata resultdescribing the program playing at the time.

In the event that the request server 320 cannot locate a metadata resultcorresponding to the received broadcast station selector 308 informationand the location information, the request server 320 will ask the clientconsumer device 302 to send a media sample representation to identifythe sample. The recognition server 322 will then computationallyidentify the sample and return a metadata result. The metadata result isthen sent to the client consumer device 302 and displayed to a user.

In the cases described above in which a terrestrial broadcast is beingmonitored and the broadcast station selector 308 does not uniquelyspecify a broadcast station (e.g., only the tuning frequency isspecified), an optional means for location may be used in conjunctionwith a map of known physical broadcast stations and correspondingcoverage areas to ascertain to which station the client device is tuned,based on the assumption that reception is limited to a coverage area inproximity to the broadcast station. FIG. 6 illustrates a conceptualblock diagram of a coverage area map for two radio stations. In theexample shown in FIG. 6, Radio Station 104.5 WMQD has a coverage area602, Radio Station 96.5 WGRD has a coverage area 604, and a second RadioStation 96.5 WGRD has a coverage area 606. Mobile device 608 is withincoverage area 602 and mobile device 610 is within coverage area 604while mobile device 612 is within both coverage areas 602 and 604.Mobile device 614 is within coverage area 606.

The mobile devices may send a content identification query through awireless network 616 via a wireless link 618 to a server 620, whichincludes functionality and/or components comprising a sample analyzer,as described above in FIG. 3, to identify broadcast content receivedfrom the Radio Stations. The server 620 may have the map, as shown inFIG. 6, of the coverage areas of the Radio Stations, and using locationinformation received from the mobile devices, can determine to whichradio station the mobile device is listening. However, for mobiledevices 610, 612 and 614, the server 620 may also require additionalinformation, such as the location of the mobile device, because thefrequency information alone will not be enough to distinguish the radiostations.

In another embodiment involving client consumer devices tuning toterrestrial broadcast stations, and in which a GPS receiver (orfunctional equivalent) is present within the devices, a self-organizingbroadcast station mapping system may be derived if no map of physicalbroadcast stations is available. Initially, it is not known where eachbroadcast radio station is located, however, it is desired to determinefor each broadcast station its coverage area. A coverage map may beformed from many samples taken by many client consumer appliances over aperiod of time. Referring back to FIG. 3, to construct a coverage areamap, each query received at the request server 320 may include a tuningfrequency, a GPS location, and a media sample. Each query is initiallyrouted to the recognition server 322 for identification of the metadatausing the computational identification technique. If two queries aremade using the same frequency, and the media sample from one requesttemporally overlaps the time interval of validity resulting from theother request, then the metadata is checked to see if the identifiedprograms correspond to each other. This is performed, for example, bydetermining if the metadata match, and then a temporal correspondence isverified for example by determining whether the time intervals ofvalidity match. If both media samples are determined to be the same,then the request server 320 will have two geographic locations to whichthe tuning frequency broadcasts (e.g., if the metadata and the intervalsmatch, then the two users are declared to be tuned to the same unknownbroadcast station).

The two corresponding GPS locations are grouped into a set of locationsbelonging to the unknown broadcast station that have the same broadcaststation selector (e.g. tuning frequency). A coverage map may begenerated from the set of locations by convolving with a disc ofpredetermined radius, e.g., 0.5 or 1 Kilometer. In other words, alocality zone of predetermined radius is drawn around each point in theset of locations. Each unknown broadcast station is thus associated witha corresponding coverage map, and furthermore, is associated withcurrently cached metadata from the most recent recognition of a mediasample associated with the unknown broadcast station. When a query ismade with a broadcast station selector and a new GPS location, a searchis performed to find a broadcast station that has the same broadcaststation selector and coverage map that overlaps the GPS location. If amatch is found and a current metadata is available for that group, thena media identification by the recognition server is not performed andthe current metadata is returned. Otherwise, a media identification isperformed by the recognition server and the resulting metadata becomesthe currently cached metadata for that broadcast station.

If a new non-overlapping GPS location is encountered (e.g., the locationis not within the previously generated coverage area map) and the querydoes not match a known broadcast station and an associated coverage map,then a media identification is performed. If the resulting metadata andtime interval of validity matches that of a known broadcast station thathas the same broadcast station selector (e.g., tuning frequency), thenthe new GPS location can be added to that broadcast station's set oflocations and the associated coverage map can be updated. If no matchingbroadcast station is found, then a new record for a new broadcaststation would be generated.

Using the methods described herein, raw audio samples received frombroadcast stations can be identified using known computationalidentification techniques, and the identification can be stored andreturned to subsequent queries associated with the same broadcast sourceduring a time of validity. If many users are listening to the samebroadcast program and are making the same query, much time can be savedby performing one computational audio pattern recognition and returningthe result to all users, rather than performing a computationalidentification of content for every user (when doing so will repeat manyidentifications).

Many embodiments have been described as being performed, individually orin combination with other embodiments, however, any of the embodimentsdescribed above may be used together or in any combination to enhancecertainty of identifying samples in the data stream. In addition, manyof the embodiments may be performed using a consumer device that has abroadcast stream receiving means (such as a radio receiver), and either(1) a data transmission means for communicating with a centralidentification server for performing the identification step, or (2) ameans for carrying out the identification step built into the consumerdevice itself (e.g., an audio recognition means database could be loadedonto the consumer device). Further, the consumer device may includemeans for updating a database to accommodate identification of new audiotracks, such as an Ethernet or wireless data connection to a server, andmeans to request a database update. The consumer device may also furtherinclude local storage means for storing recognized segmented and labeledaudio track files, and the device may have playlist selection and audiotrack playback means, as in a jukebox, for example.

The methods described above can be implemented in software that is usedin conjunction with a general purpose or application specific processorand one or more associated memory structures. Nonetheless, otherimplementations utilizing additional hardware and/or firmware mayalternatively be used. For example, the mechanism of the presentapplication is capable of being distributed in the form of acomputer-readable medium of instructions in a variety of forms, and thatthe present application applies equally regardless of the particulartype of signal bearing media used to actually carry out thedistribution. Examples of such computer-accessible devices includecomputer memory (RAM or ROM), floppy disks, and CD-ROMs, as well astransmission-type media such as digital and analog communication links.

While examples have been described in conjunction with presentembodiments of the application, persons of skill in the art willappreciate that variations may be made without departure from the scopeand spirit of the application. For example, although the broadcastdata-stream described in the examples are often audio streams, theinvention is not so limited, but rather may be applied to a wide varietyof broadcast content, including video, television, internet streaming,or other multimedia content. As one example, video files may beidentified using similar techniques for identifying audio filesincluding scanning a video file to find digital markings (e.g.,fingerprints) unique to the file, and checking a database of videos toidentify videos that have similar markings Fingerprint technology canidentify audio or video by extracting specific characterizationparameters of a file, which are translated into a bit string orfingerprint, and comparing the fingerprints of the file with thefingerprints of previously stored original files in a central database.For more information on video recognition technologies, the reader isreferred to U.S. Pat. No. 6,714,594, entitled “Video content detectionmethod and system leveraging data-compression constructs,” the contentsof which are herein incorporated by reference as if fully set forth inthis description.

Further, the apparatus and methods described herein may be implementedin hardware, software, or a combination, such as a general purpose ordedicated processor running a software application through volatile ornon-volatile memory. The true scope and spirit of the application isdefined by the appended claims, which may be interpreted in light of theforegoing.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for identifying content, comprising: fora second content identification query received after a first contentidentification query and during a broadcast of content for which thesecond content identification query pertains, providing, as a responseto the second content identification query, a response to the firstcontent identification query.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein thesecond content identification query pertains to content broadcast from asame broadcast source as content that was a subject of the first contentidentification query.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprisingreceiving the second content identification query from a client device,and wherein the second content identification query includes informationidentifying a broadcast source of content that is a subject of thesecond content identification query.
 4. The method of claim 3, whereinthe information identifying the broadcast source includes one or more ofa broadcast frequency, a satellite radio channel, a television channel,a uniform resource locator (URL), and an internet address.
 5. The methodof claim 1, further comprising: receiving the second contentidentification query from a client device at a given location; anddetermining the response to the second content identification querybased on the given location.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein thesecond content identification query includes information identifying thegiven location of the client device.
 7. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising receiving the second content identification query from asecond client device, and wherein providing, as the response to thesecond content identification query, the response to the first contentidentification query comprises: providing a previous identification ofcontent performed in response to the first content identification queryreceived from a first client device located in a geographic location ofa coverage area of a same broadcast source that broadcast content thatwas a subject of the second content identification query.
 8. The methodof claim 1, further comprising determining the response to the secondcontent identification query without performing a computationalidentification of the content.
 9. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising retrieving from memory the response to the first contentidentification query.
 10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:receiving the second content identification query from a client device;and requesting from the client device a media sample of the broadcast ofcontent for which the second content identification query pertains. 11.The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving at a server thesecond content identification query from a client device; and providingto the client device, as the response to the second contentidentification query, the response to the first content identificationquery.
 12. A method comprising: performing a computationalidentification of content broadcast from a source; determining a timelength of the content; and marking the computational identification asvalid for a time window based on the time length of the content.
 13. Themethod of claim 12, further comprising: based on the time window,determining a time at which to perform a second computationalidentification of second content broadcast from the source, wherein thesecond content is broadcast from the source subsequent to the contentbroadcast from the source.
 14. The method of claim 12, wherein thecontent broadcast from the source includes a segment of content within acontinuous data stream.
 15. The method of claim 12, wherein performingthe computational identification of content broadcast from the sourcecomprises determining information indicative of a song broadcast fromthe source, and wherein the time window is approximately a timecorresponding to a length of the song.
 16. A client device comprising: amedia sampler configured to record a portion of a broadcast of content;a query generator configured to provide to a server a contentidentification query comprising a geographic location of the clientdevice, a timestamp of the content identification query, and broadcastsource information; wherein data identifying the broadcast of content isreceived in response to the content identification query.
 17. The clientdevice of claim 16, wherein the query generator is further configured toprovide the recording of the portion of the broadcast of content to theserver in response to receiving a request for a media sample from theserver.
 18. The client device of claim 16, wherein the broadcast ofcontent includes video.
 19. The client device of claim 16, wherein thebroadcast of content includes audio.
 20. The client device of claim 16,wherein the data identification the broadcast of content received inresponse to the content identification query includes a time indicatinga length of the content, and wherein the query generator is furtherconfigured to compute a time at which to provide a subsequent contentidentification query to the server based on the time indicating thelength of the content.